Essay about The Lady of Shalot - 507 Words

quot;The Lady of Shalotquot; tells the story of a woman who lives in a tower in Shalott, which is an island on a river that runs, along with the road beside it, to Camelot, the setting of the legends about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Every day, the woman weaves a tapestry picture of the landscape that is visible from her window, including Camelot. There is, however, a curse on her; the woman does not know the cause of the curse, but she knows that she cannot look directly out of the window, so she views the subjects of her artwork through a mirror that is beside her. The woman is happy to weave, but is tired of looking at life only as a reflection. One day, Sir Lancelot rides by, looking bold and handsome in his†¦show more content†¦As she drifts along, singing and observing all of the sights that were forbidden to her before, she dies. The boat floats past Camelot, and all of the knights make the sign of the cross upon seeing a corpse go by, but Lancelot , seeing her for the first time, notes, quot;She has a lovely face.quot; This poem was first published in 1832, when Tennyson was 23 years old, in a volume called Poems. Up to that point, Tennyson had received great critical acclaim, and had won national awards, but the critics savagely attacked the 1832 book, mostly because of poems such as quot;The Lady of Shalottquot; that dealt with fantasy situations instead of realistic ones. The next year, 1833, Tennysons best friend died, which affected the poet as greatly as would anything in his life. For a long time, during a period that later came to be known as quot;the ten years silence,quot; nothing of Tennysons was published. In 1842, a new volume, also called Poems, was published, to great critical acclaim. The new book had a slightly revised version of quot;The Lady of Shalott,quot; and this version is the one that is studied today. Deprivation In this poem, the main character exists under a spell without knowing what its origin is or why it has been put on her and without thinking of how she can remove it. She seems toShow MoreRelatedOrientalism : The Romantic Era Of British Literature And Meshes Essay2475 Words   |  10 Pagesfinds himself back on his walk with Christ. 3. â€Å"Lady Susan† by Jane Austen is a short epistolary novel published after she died. Lady Susan is not only the titles namesake but the main character of the in the short epistolary novel. Lady Jane is a beautiful, manipulative, calculating, and self-indulgent widow; a woman so cold-hearted in her machinations that she puts her own interests ahead of her daughter’s, or anyone else’s for that matter. Lady Susan exemplifies many aspects of William Blake’s